Our Audition Process

I’ve had a couple of emails come in this month asking about our audition process so I thought I’d write a quick blog about how we add musicians here at COTM. We touched on this briefly at Seeds Conference but I’ll go a little more in-depth.

To even be eligible to audition for a spot on any of our worship teams, one must go through our church’s partnership process. Once that is completed, he/she must be cleared via a background check.

The musician must contact our music director Marcos Cruz for a quick interview. Marcos will ask about their musical history and their goals - do they want to be a soloist, BGV only, be on the main stage, KOTM?

Marcos will set up an audition time and have the singer/musician come prepared to sing 2 worship songs that we are currently doing here at COTM, plus a song of their choosing. Auditions must be held with at least 2 of our staff present and must be recorded on video.

If Marcos feels like the person who auditioned has potential then I will view the video and give my input. If I notice potential as well I will have him set up a 2nd audition ASAP and have that person sing/play the same songs with me in the room.

During this 2nd audition I will offer feedback and direction to get a sense of the flexibility and teachability of the singer/musician. If I feel that they have what it takes to join our team I will then spend the next 10-15 minutes explaining what we expect from team members, rehearsal schedules, etc. Honestly, a lot of people disqualify themselves simply because they cannot put in the time that is expected to do what we do...

Out of the 30-40 people who auditioned for us last year only 3 made it onto our main stage immediately. If someone showed promise but needed work I immediately put them on the KOTM radar. If someone who sang or played for us was just...well, not good, I or Marcos would have an honest talk with them to let them know that there are plenty of other places in our church where they can serve.

Also, we have tried the “cattle call” auditions in the past and felt like it was a total waste of time. Our experience has been that solo auditions show us what we need to see and gives us time to get to know the person auditioning.

Andy came to Church on the Move in 2005, having been in the music industry for over 25 years. He's dedicated to raising up the next generation of worship leaders, and even though he spent many years with the group 4him, he says he's "having more fun now than I ever did on the road."